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Leduc County council briefs

Leduc County set to take part in a number of summer parades
Leduc County will take part in eight parades beginning Saturday, June 3 with the annual Black Gold Rodeo. They also may take part in the annual K-Days parade in Edmonton in late July. No decision was made during a regular council meeting on April 11. The theme for the 2017 parades will be ‘celebrating 150 years’ to honour Canada’s 150th anniversary.
The other parades Leduc County will take part in are:

Leduc Black Gold Rodeo Devon Days on Saturday, June 3

New Sarepta Fair Days on Saturday, June 17

Thorsby Haymaker Rodeo on Saturday, June 17

Warburg Canada Day on Saturday, June 24

Leduc West Antique Exposition on Saturday, July 22 & Sunday, July 23

Calmar Fair on Saturday, Aug. 19

Leduc Santa Claus Parade on Friday, Nov. 24

Council denies funding for Pigeon Lake research project
Representing Pigeon Lake’s Summer Village of Grandview, Don Davidson made a presentation regarding a research project the University of Alberta will conduct on a predictive model for cyanobacterial blooms to council.
He also made a request the county provide $2,500 towards the research project, which hopes to identify why Pigeon Lake has experienced major algae blooms beginning since the early 2000s.
Instead of approving the funding, council voted 5-1 in favour of accepting the presentation as information. Mayor John Whaley voted against the motion.
The research project will be led by Dr. Rolf Vinebrooke of the U of A. According to council documents, the research project will hope to, “ address the issue of prediction of cyanobacterial blooms by interpreting the quantitative analysis of observational data using existing theory regarding the functional traits of major cyanobacterial species. This empirical approach will focus on multivariate analyses of environmental variables and taxonomic cyanobacterial data sets from Alberta lakes to identify the set of significant and independent factors that best explain spatial and temporal variation in cyanobacterial blooms.”

Council votes to terminate Municipal Reserve lease
A Municipal Reserve lease of a piece of Leduc County land was approved for termination in a 5-2 vote by council. Mayor John Whaley and Coun. John Schoenwille voted against the proposal. Administration recommended the lease be terminated due to overgrazing of the lands. The hope is over the summer the lands will be rejuvenated, as the lands were used by horses for grazing. Donna Smith, the area resident who leased the land and used it to allow her horses to graze, asked council to reconsider and extend the lease as she felt there was a lot of work done of the land and it was necessary for her horses to be on.
“We’ve done a lot of work on this land and we don’t want to lose it,” she said. Pictures presented in council chambers showed the land had bare patches, overgrazed grasses and a piling up of manure. The lands will be maintained by the county and after this summer passes, county staff will inspect and provide an assessment of the lands to determine if it can be leased for agricultural purposes again in 2018.

Rolly View Community Hall added as extra advanced vote location
Council unanimously voted in favour of adding Rolly View Community Hall as another Leduc County advanced voting station. There are now three locations in the county for the advanced vote which is set to happen on Thursday, Oct. 5 from 12 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 7 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The other two locations will be the Thorsby Recreation Centre and Nisku Inn and Conference Centre, which were approved by council as locations earlier this year.